How Good was Coles donating one day of profit to the #bushfires ? Unlike banks with no imagination - each commodifying each other by adding $1M - Coles changed consumer behaviour (ppls didnt shop till friday/used coles instead) and got every1 talking about it on radio/at mothers-fathers group, and turned up on friday happy to spend money at coles : Possibly some will not go back to Safeway etc. And they made $5.1M - probably the total given by the banks put together, even though their individual and aggregate profit dwarfs Coles. So Coles rocked it.

Disclaimers first* -

I am in no way associated to Coles altho my 2nd job (following the paper round) was for a supermarket - The Anstees brand I think or that’s how it sounded. Nor am I associated in anyway NonSociety way to Polyvore although I do use their free website. What a bargain! I really can’t say enough positive about Polyvore, my account’ere. Finally while these bookmarklets may be considered Web 2.0 - that term doth not speaketh it’s name* ! While MySpace will use their PR strength to push time on site connsumer engagement, I’m just plain addicted sporadically (in terms of creating a set) to Polyvore, but I’m always adding products and images to my Polyvore dashboard via their “clip to polyvore” bookmarklet. Polyvore  is very smart at remembering and redisplaying the url, thumbnail and summary info of what u clip and then automagically republish like a search result as u see with list of curated by BB desert boots. Obviously with great CPCs in fashion Polyvore have a gr8 vertical to win first but as a modern scrapbooking tool it’s way smart. I see them operating in all verticals amazon is in ! Bonus. OK spiel over!

Just a Little Bit of Web 2.0 4 Ya : My Bookmarklets

BB's Bookmarklets Top 5 : Friendfeed, Polyvore, Delicious, Twitlet + Google Reader.

If u r not using any bookmarklets as alot of people still aren’t because, well they r on windows, and dont want to download any “toolbar”  full of viruses and are just plain lazy, u r really missing out on productivity. Especially if u r a blogging social networker and if u have any need to store your web history in a means beyond browser bookmarking, something I cant even remember doing now. So here u will see the 5 bookmarklets I use : Which has evolved as each of them have a very similar use case prima facie, but in reality what has evolved is clearly segmented items, but there is alot more I wish I could do.

BB’s 5 Bookmarklets :

1. “Share on Friendfeed” :

You can see my friendfeed’ere. When I find an article usually via Google Reader (as I have near 4k feeds now I have set up a “SupaSpesh” folder which is my Top 200 feeds, thiis is what I read first as reading the inbox of 4000 feeds gets u nowhere. Anyway, so I’m usually in google reader or I also see items come via Twitter (using Twhirl and the 800+ peeps I follow there) or Friendfeed via their realtime open window browser (following a couple hundred people and 5-10 rooms) So when I find a piece which usually has a good picture and is temporal as I’m not likely to need it for strategic/research etc purposes I’ll share via friendfeed bookmarklet both selecting best paragraph and the pic. Until it busted the bonus of this was the same pic and headline was then showing on my blog sidebar via Friendfeed Activity Widget for Wordpress 2.7, but the plugin busted and the substitute one i’ve got doesn’t show the image only headline which is a real bummer as blog sidebars need images in my pov. The key decision I make here is whether to use friendfeed or delicious. Delicious doesnt allow me to clip/tag images in an article so in effect fun/disposal pieces i use friendfeed sharing and serious/evergreen i use delicious, not both. Friendfeed search is good enough that when im looking for item i can go back and search for it. But I also dont know why they dont allow u to tag items in storage that u have shared. So actions :

- Friendfeed : add tags to bookmarklet shared item links. Also the bookmarklet when it appears on page, if u try and add an image too quickly (beforepage name in title is presented) the whole page is lost and u cant click back, having to find the url of page again and start whole processs again. Check out Polyvore’s bookmarklet as they dont have this issue and their images load quicker with less errors. It’s really quite amazing, Polyvore can suck in 10 images in less thn 45 seconds then when u reuse them u can use quite a high res. Friendfeed take notice.

- Delicious : add images to tagging functionality, its ridiculous u dont, or I’d say buy Polyvore (their founder created Yahoo Pipe) but I’d say dont buy em as u’d wreck it and there would be no innovation

- Wordpress and developers : get a better bookmarklet for friendfeed so I can display headlines, intro text and images and control what is presented.. eg items i’ve shared that have most likes/comments etc ie advanced search item selection and publishing control over media. Overall - more friendfeed/wordpress integration please

Alpha Project is trying to Discover The Dollhouse

2. “Subscribe” to this Feed via Google Reader :

My Google Reader shared items’ere. The ‘Subscribe’ bookmarklet is simple as adding feeds of your choice to google reader. However, being a nearing 4k subscribed to google reader I face some issues;

a) Slowness with More Subscriptions: The more feeds you are subscribed to in google reader the more time it takes to subscribe to new feeds. Sometimes even on top of line imac and fast connection, it takes over one minute to press subscribe and select a folder.

b) Authenticate Feed : Also feed authentication is a big issue. I’d say nearly 1/4 of feeds using “Subscribe” bookmarklet dont add the feed and dont give an explanation why (sometimes i’m already subscribed for example) rather just takes u back to inbox. Then when u open up “Add subscription” within google reader and add feed url (i prefer atom) this works 95% of time. Please fix this.

c) Less Clicks Please : Why cant I add a folder at same time as I press subscribe - instead I need 2 page refreshes and back to it takes over a minute 70% of time.

Now if I could embrace The Secret + Change My Life, I'd just be able to walk well floor it out of the Lambo dealership with the stunning 560 model via Autostyle on Flickr. No Spider version of this yet so Ferrari win.

3. “Clip to Polyvore” :

Very happy with Polyvore bookmarklet (account’ere), which I use to clip largely fashion items - From sneakers, desert boots obviously, jackets, shirts, watches, cars etc - There are some sites that block eg flickr and some etailers but generally 80% of sites I try there is success. Sometimes and i didnt realise this till one month in of using and so I guess this turns off alot of users, about 1/3rd of images u clip, u need reverse the image “Show background” in polyvore speak. This needs to be communicated better. What is very kewl with polyvore is u create sets of items from those u clipped (or others from system) and all the original url/site/product name/details are kept and represented (plus u can optionally add your tags and keywords - unlike friendfeed), it’s really brilliant. Then u can publish on facebook, your blog. At moment, I still havent got it autopublishing to my blog (i do to facebook but i hate facebook) so I’d like more assistance from Polyvore within the site on autopublishing to wordpress on my own domain. They could help more. But 9/10, top notch. If anything the dashboard within polyvore is where improvements are needed, navigation isn’t totally intuitive going from draft to publish to sharing on your blog and facebook then back to edit etc. Simple things like Creating a New Set or finding your old ones are actually quite hard on Polyvore depending on what page u r on. They need some big universal buttons, even for power users So basically I use it for fashion eg desert boots today, but I’d like to use it in an almost skitch like manner where it does all my photo presentation and remixing on my blog, as well as categories beyond men’s fashion - whether that be entertainment, design, automotive and travel etc. Also I’d like to be able to better display my polyvore items in my design on my blog sidebar. Havent found a polyvore/wordpress plugin yet, coming soon any1?

Adidas Originals are Kewl just as Polyvore is.

4. “Tag” This to Delicious :

This is the first bookmarklet I used and I’m up to 4777 items all via bookmarklet tool. Delicious is still brilliant but examples where both friendfeed and polyvore allow u to clip images, there is no reason other than laziness, size, being inside Yahoo that u cant clip images… and other media types from a page. Get onto it please delicious, as if friendfeed brought out decent folksonomy/self classification I could walk away from delicious/benbarren. That said with my other bookmarklets it works. And I then publish on my blog sidebar.

5. “Twitlet” : Don’t think Twitlet has an aggregate url ? My twitter is ere and twitpics too. This is a recent addition to my bookmarklets done last week; It doesn’t require me to download anything ore register even (like twiitpic it uses my twitter account for better or worse) With this instead of finding a link I want to tweet, which would necessitate a cutnpaste / write tweet / enter url into bit.ly-tinyurl type service / then press update on twitter - Now all I do is when on the page, say Im watching a flight of the conchords new ep I simply press ‘twitlet’ bookmarklet then type “#link watching latest gr8 ep of #flightofconchords” - I’ve found this tool much more productive than i even envisioned being boarderline about whether I really needed it and whether it would provide benefits. It’s great for sharing songs, movies, tv shows u r watching but couldnt be bothered opening new page about etc esp when watching/doing.

I wouldnt mind a Novanta Desktop + Apple 24" Monitor or even a computer that worked at moment.

Onto Petrol Sniffing + Desert Boot Dreaming

This Car Probably Just Went to Top of Most Desired under $600K Aussie (may be more or less) via Ricardipus : Ferrari F430 16M Scuderia Spider in Yellow. Thats a triple tick.

F430 16m Scuderia Spider yellow drool.

Ok maybe there wasn’t any sniffing of petrol, coz y would i waste it ? Anyway so I had no petrol and had to get to docs in Rye today I had to go over to Balnarring first - One of the weaknesses of great property prices is the ‘general store’ which for 30 years my family has been here it’s been the one retail outlet for this area. Selling slightly higher than normal petrol, alcohol, coffee and food. But recently a retirement home developer bought the general store (even without the right council zoning it was worth the punt for him) and so that means no petrol in Shoreham or other suburbs on way to Rye, such as Flinders which hasnt had petrol for almost a decade.

So I drive for 25 minutes and prob used $2.50 worth of petrol and then put in $7 at Balnarring, grabbed a latte, didnt have enough for near $2 Sunday paper, but positive sign there was a Herald Sun that had been left by the last customer (which never happens) so that was a bonus + sign and then I popped over to Rye, forsaked goin to Christos cafe after docs as I already had paper and half a coffee. So I invested the remaining $3.50 (price of large latte) on more petrol. Dont u hate doing 2 service station stops within the hour for less than 8 litres of petrol. But I needed to as the empty sign went on even after I put in the $7. And I was told I have to go back tomorrow morning, and I didnt want to have to do all of the above again, and repeat it on the blog. Infinite Jest indeed for DFW fans, the entertainment never stops repeating, until you die banality.

So there is no connection between petrol, it’s cost, Mornington Peninsula transportation logistics and rising property prices even in this recession. Suffice to say my Freudian outlet is microchunking on Polyvore, and today’s object is the traditional desert boot. The one your parents bought u that was a light brown suede that u hated wearing - maybe with cords and an Anglican church windcheater if u were as lucky as me. God bless St Agnes, the S LU… ok i better noT out the lovely lass. Let it all out Gabriel Byrne told me on his HBO therapy show.

Gr8 Pic by Ricardipus, havent seen this car mentioned on the autoblogs : The Lambo 560 + 640 are so well designed, it's great to see a Ferrari finally look like a Ferrari should. Sorry but yellow exterior/black rims, on a supercar this good. I'm sold. Where do I sign the preorder for 2020 ?

Now this post was meant to be about Desert Boots, what happened ?

The Winner First : Common Projects Safari Boot in Leather. From Oki-Ni : "The Safari boot is a new style for s/s 09 from Common Projects and is a playful edition to the collection. A grey nappa leather high top upper with a simply laced vamp and matching black rubber sole, this sneaker has a low tongue and long oval toe that differentiate it from a classic basketball style."

And damn has the desert boot had some modern interpretations done or what. Unfortunately very few of the shoes shown are available downunder. Bad thing about subscribing to 100-200 fashion blogs (would be my estimate.. prob 20 dedicated quality daily publishing sneaker/shoe blogs then 3x that of mens fashion blogs) Anyway the best ‘chukkas’ as the UK call them seem to not mess with the formula too much, but modern up with an interesting sole, or type of leather treatment from brands such as A-Life, Opening Ceremony, Be Positive, Visvim, Nike’s Lux line, even Lupe Fiasco the rapper has a collaboration, there are some great looking kix ere.

Obviously at moment I’m most obsessed by the new Common Projects Safari desert boot, in leather with a very slight grey tinge is my favourite or close second is the dark charcoal canvas model, but the leather ones look so soft I cant go past. Oh to dream and throw in some wickedly expensive watches from Hublot, Panerai and slightly cheaper Breitling and best priced Welder K24 model. So many choices ere but when the Aussie winter comes around again, Im definitely getting some Chukkas as they’re called in the UK or plain ol Desert Boots downunder ! Check my polyvore list ere.

My Favourites are the VLight Grey Common Projects middle centre slightly right and some of the Opening Ceremonies, Be Positive, want a pair of Japanese Visvim if just for the cult following and kewlflappy heel western thing, etc :P